Indivisible Human Rights

The Relationship Of Political And Civil Rights To Survival, Subsistence And Poverty

The advocacy of civil and political rights is often perceived as neglect of social and economic rights. Many governments argue that their primary concern must be to address concerns such as hunger, poverty and illiteracy, implying that rights such as freedom of expression and association are somehow secondary. In its White Paper on human rights issued in October 1991, for example, the Chinese government argues, AIt is a simple truth that, for any country or nation, the right to subsistence is the most important of all human rights, without which the other rights are out of the question.